Just after a heated summer that included a handful of fatalities at the hands of police that raised questions of racism, the NAACP has released a report that says many states do not have laws that explicitly prohibit racial profiling.

The civil rights organization on Thursday released the 68-page report, Born Suspect: Stop and Frisk and the Continued Fight to End Racial Profiling in America. The group launched the study after the Feb. 26, 2012, death of Florida teen Trayvon Martin, shot by neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman, said lead author Niaz Kasravi, the NAACP's director of criminal justice.

Kasravi told USA TODAY that what stood out most for her was that the findings were similar to another study she did after the 2001 terror attacks while working for Amnesty International. Back then, the focus was on alleged racial profiling against Muslims.

"Not much has changed. The numbers are pretty stagnant," Kasravi said.

She said "probably a couple of states" passed laws prohibiting racial profiling -- stopping and questioning people based on racial stereotypes -- over the past decade. She said the NAACP has a litmus test -- things such as data collection and enhanced police training -- to measure the effectiveness of racial profiling laws. "It's sad that not one state has all those components."

The report found that:

20 state racial profiling laws are not clear and specific in prohibiting racial profiling.

33 states do not require mandatory data on stops and searches.

33 states do not require establishment of racial profiling commissions to review complaints.

The release of the report comes as tension still brews in Ferguson, Mo., where 18-year-old Michael Brown was shot and killed by police officer Darren Wilson on Aug. 9, and in New York City, where Eric Garner died in a chokehold by police on July 17.

On Thursday, national activists and family members of Brown and Garner were in Washington to ask the Justice Department to investigate the two deaths.

NAACP President Cornel Brooks, among those at a press conference, said African American communities are "in the midst of a pandemic of police misconduct."

Benjamin Crump, the lawyer for the Brown family, said of predominantly black neighborhoods, "Probable cause happens in our community with no evidence at all."

Alleged racial profiling and police misconduct are the main reasons members and leaders of NAACP chapters contact the organization's Baltimore headquarters, Kasravi said.

The report advocates federal legislation that would prohibit racial profiling and calls on the Justice Department to update its 2003 guidelines on race for law enforcement agencies.

Kasravi said she and others in the NAACP hope that Justice Department recommendations in the report would still be carried out despite the announcement Thursday that Attorney General Eric Holder is resigning.

"We're hoping that before the attorney general steps down, this guidance is updated," she said. "I can't tell you how many parents have sat with me in their living rooms and talked about their sons or daughters who are no longer with us and flipped through photo albums. It's heart-wrenching. I hope that these stories aren't forgotten and that people continue to humanize this problem."